Diplomacy

01.02.13

Israel's Unnecessarily Provocative Position

Michael Koplow draws some important lessons from the recent clash between Israeli diplomats and Israeli politicians, to which I'll add a PS:

During the Israeli Foreign Ministry's ambassadors conference on Monday, the assembled diplomats were given a tongue lashing by Israeli National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror, who took exception to a question posed by UN Ambassador Ron Prosor about the decision to start the zoning and planning process for E1. After Prosor asked why the government decided to make the E1 announcement and received a round of applause from the room, Amidror responded by saying that American and British diplomats would never applaud someone who criticized the policy of their own government, and that ambassadors are merely clerks tasked with carrying out rather than questioning the government's directives. He further suggested that any diplomats unhappy with this should either go into politics themselves or resign. …

Amidror's response to Prosor was a real overreaction, and all the more surprising given that he was not speaking to a group that could in any way be deemed a hostile audience. One of two things, and possibly both simultaneously, are going on here. Either the government is actually feeling a lot more pressure on settlements and E1 than it lets on, which would explain Amidror's hair triggered short temper, or the government is feeling a lot more pressure over its declining pre-election poll numbers than it lets on and was willing to use a clash with its ambassadors to score political points.

Here's the promised PS. I know Ron Prosor, and he is not only one of the very shrewdest diplomats Israel fields, but also in no sense a soft-liner. If Prosor is warning that an Israeli government's position is inadvisedly provocative, then attention had better be paid.